EUROZONE-GREECE/VAROUFAKIS-US TREASURY Bailout means recession for Greece - finance minister

Record ID: 496325

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/VAROUFAKIS-US TREASURY Bailout means recession for Greece - finance minister
  • Date: 6th February 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (FEBRUARY 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF GREEK FINANCE MINISTRY GREEK AND EUROPEAN UNION FLAG ON TOP OF FINANCE MINISTRY U.S. AMBASSADOR TO GREECE, DAVID PEARCE, AND U.S. TREASURY DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EUROPE AND EURASIA, DALEEP SINGH, WITH TEAM ARRIVING AT AND ENTERING FINANCE MINISTRY BUILDING U.S. CARS PARKED BY MINISTRY GREEK FINANCE MINISTER, YANIS VAROUFAKIS, ARRIVING AT FINANCE MINISTRY (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) GREEK FINANCE MINISTER, YANIS VAROUFAKIS, SAYING: "The bailout means an ongoing recession and an unbearable and an unsustainable debt." REPORTER ASKING: "How will you deal with the pressure from Germany and the other Europeans?" VAROUFAKIS ANSWERING: "By power of logic inherent in Europe itself." REPORTER ASKING: "Will you be able to succeed?" VAROUFAKIS ANSWERING: "We have no other choice." PEARCE, SINGH AND TEAM LEAVING MINISTRY, DRIVING AWAY VARIOUS VAROUFAKIS WALKING FROM MINISTRY TO PARLIAMENT WITH REPORTERS FOLLOWING, PHOTOGRAPHER STUMBLES AND FALLS, VAROUFAKIS HELPS HIM UP VARIOUS VAROUFAKIS WALKING ACCOMPANIED BY DEPUTY MINISTER FOR FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS EUCLID TSAKALOTOS
  • Embargoed: 21st February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1K8T235FAFZLQY5RT1ITGDUFU
  • Story Text: Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Friday (February 6) the country had no other choice but to seek agreement with its creditors and excluded the possibility of a bailout from future talks.
    Varoufakis briefly spoke to media before meeting a team of U.S. treasury officials led by Daleep Singh, the U.S. Treasury's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia, and also included U.S. Ambassador to Greece David Pearce.
    The United States told Greece through its ambassador to work cooperatively with its European colleagues and the International Monetary Fund and that Athens needed to push ahead with reforms.
    The ambassador reaffirmed the United States' position that "Greece should continue to make administrative and structural reforms and exercise fiscal prudence," the embassy said in a statement.
    A government official said earlier that Varoufakis will not agree to anything at a meeting with euro zone partners next week that keeps Greece's current international bailout programme in place.
    "The bailout means an ongoing recession and an unbearable and an unsustainable debt," Yanis Varoufakis told reporters before talks with the U.S. ambassador and treasury team.
    Varoufakis has just returned to Athens after a tour of European capitals in which he received scant support for his new left-wing government's pledge to end austerity imposed under the bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
    Eurogroup finance ministers will discuss how to proceed with financial support for Athens at a special session next Wednesday (February 11) in preparation for talks among European Union leaders on the issue the following day.
    Germany, the major euro zone power, wants the government to go back on anti-austerity promises made in its first days in office and revert to economic policies agreed by its predecessor with international lenders.
    Asked how was he planning to withstand the pressure from Germany and other EU leaders, Varoufakis said: "By power of logic inherent in Europe itself."
    "We have no other choice," he added when asked if he thought he would succeed.
    Varoufakis clashed openly with his powerful German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday (February 5) as Athens' borrowing costs leapt and bank shares plunged following the European Central Bank's decision to stop funding the country's lenders.
    After blunt talks in Berlin, Schaeuble said he had told Varoufakis it was not realistic to make electoral promises that burdened other countries, and they had "agreed to disagree".
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